The deal brings with it 40 out of 50 DVC employees in its Morristown, NJ, office and the imminent opening of a new Aspen Marketing office in New York. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"A lot of the big agencies like myself and the WPPs and the Publicises, when we want to go and make acquisitions, we look at the human capital side and when we see talent, it just encourages us to acquire it before anybody else does it," said Patrick O'Rahilly, CEO of Aspen Marketing, Chicago.

DVC is expected to bill $12 million this year, taking Aspen Marketing's anticipated yearlong billings to $275 million. DVC will lose its name.

Aspen Marketing is a full-service independent agency with clients like General Motors Corp., at&t Corp., Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Honeywell, Service Master and Mutual of Omaha. It has regional offices in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Detroit, St. Petersburg, FL, and Boise, ID, and sales offices in Dallas, Phoenix and Birmingham, AL.

The DVC acquisition is Aspen Marketing's second this year, with plans to buy more for a larger national agency footprint. The added value of any purchase always is taken into consideration.

"One exciting part of the DVC acquisition is the PR component," Mr. O'Rahilly said. "We're looking forward to leveraging that across our client base."

EXTENDED DEADLINE

You have until Wednesday, December 7 to get your entries in. Learn more here.